"I have already intimated to you the danger of Parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on Geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, & warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the Spirit of Party, generally."
George Washington's Farewell Address

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865.

"But while they prate of economic laws, men and women are starving. We must lay hold of the fact that economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings."Franklin D. Roosavelt"There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again."George W. Bush

This is progress?

The only thing which is really up for debate when it comes to the quality of our presidents over the past two centuries is whether the decline and aggregate shift to the middle has been quick or slow, fluxuating or steady, and I suppose, good or bad. But the trend is evident. Sixty years ago, there is not a soul living who would have accepted George W. Bush as a public figure at the centerpiece of our war against the Axis powers. It would have been thought absurd. People would have been upset if such an uneducated hick were the grand marshall of the Thanksgiving Day Parade, let alone in charge of actual armaments, trusted to protect the lives of our troops. Yet today there is an actual debate on if someone who can't adequately defend himself against the assault of a pretzel ought to be dictating military strategy.

Yet, mandate or no, this is the leader who has been chosen by the American people and who, coming into the election, was leading in the polls. A man who incontrovertably lied to trick America into getting into a war which has cost thousands of American lives, hundreds of billions of dollars, and pretty much all of our political capital for the next decade. He's passed clean air legislation which will destroy the air and cause thousands of premature deaths, not to mention a manifold increase in childhood birth defects and disease (but don't worry - mostly in poor areas) becuase it makes it easier for antiquated industries not to adapt. He's passed a Medicare law while suppressing the actual cost from congress, which gives billions of public dollars to pharmacutical companies who are, well, evil. And he's undercut education in this country by coming up with a federal law which encroaches upon state and community rights, without even the benefit of any real money to go with it, that screws over... wait for it... poor communities. He's abolishing the estate tax, lowering income taxes for the very rich, and has in no uncertain terms told the vast majority of the country that he's in office to get benefits to his own narrow business interests and familial connections.

And these are his accomplishments.

And these are the things he's done while knowing that he has to seek a second term and gain reelection.

Just wait until he has four years where he's term limited, with control of the house and senate in Republican hands.

So the logical question is: why am I voting for him?

Becuase I know for a fact that he's going to continue his reign of stupidity, and will further polarize the Republican party. His total infatuation with the religious right (and, in turn, theirs with him) is almost guaranteed to make the group as fractious as he has made the country at large. And the continuation of his economic, diplomatic and domestic policy will just bring into sharp focus the harms that his brand of thinking can be expected to reap. It will make people notice. This vote is going to have the greatest turnout since the seventies - imagine the next one. And it will make it so a candidate can win who's not afraid to actually be against these things, as opposed to paying lip service to the "liberals" with the fear of the moderates.